January 01, 2009

Starship Troopers — Classic Film Pick

Paul Verhoeven's cynical satire of American politics is loosely based on Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 science fiction novel which went on to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1960. Verhoeven's outrageous sci-fi epic piles on layers of commentary about the nature of militarization in a story about young-and-lovely high school graduates going off to war against invading giant arachnid bugs from the planet of Kelndathu.

In the film's near future, American society has fully integrated political indoctrination through a constant barrage of propaganda to effect its fascist motives. In a world where "Service guarantees citizenship," even if the rich don't have to be citizens, every kid wants to do a great job for the Fatherland--and die! "Starship Troopers" is a canny war satire that outshines even Kubrick's great film "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb."

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